Due
to many schools not having enough money, they are making budget cuts often
leaving music programs without anything.
Most schools however, do not realize the importance of keeping music in
schools is just as important as keeping sports programs and other academic or
social clubs. Music programs are usually
seen as “nonessential,” when in fact they bring several benefits to the learning
environment. Perhaps one of the biggest
benefits that I know can come from keeping music in the schools is that, music
stimulates the brain. Whether a student
is taking a beginner guitar class or is in an advanced music theory class, the
student is able to receive their “daily dosage” of music, helping to wake up
and rejuvenate their brains. Because of
this benefit, it has been proven that most students who are involved in a music
class or program tend to have better grades than those who are not. In addition to music stimulating the brain,
music also as a direct correlation to each of the core subjects that students
take. For example, in science classes students
learn about sound waves, and in English classes students learn how to write
poetry with meter and fluency, similar to how it would be to write a piece of
music. Also, in math classes students
learn about fractions which are used in music meter, and finally; a vast
knowledge of what historians know about ancient civilizations is learned
through songs that have been passed down and other forms of art such as pottery
and paintings. As you can tell, music is
not just a silly elective that students can take for fun; it reaps with educational
benefits as well as social benefits for students.
Music also serves as an emotional
outlet for students, similar to how gym class or recess is able to be an outlet
for student’s energy. By allowing
students the opportunity to go and whack some boom whackers together, shake a tambourine
around, and make as much noise as they want to it can curb loud disruptive
behavior in the classroom because that student has already had their chance to
make all the noise they wanted to.
Finally, the biggest benefit that I personally feel music in the schools
can enable is its sense of community and bringing people together. Just like how in The Power of One, when Peekay was conducting the concert and
everyone was singing, nobody cared that there were prisoners, kaffirs, whites,
whomever it may have been was singing together even if it may have just been
for that one day of the concert. I know
that when I have band, chorus, or piano classes I feel that sense of community
and family and knowing that it doesn’t matter who you are, but that we can all
come together because we have one thing in common, that being music, even if it
might only be for one period a day.
